Depths of Blue

by Lisa MacTague

  “I guess that’s one upside to us being on our own out here. What I remember from school is our first settlers were very adept with cybernetics and mechanical enhancements. The civil war only increased research and development in those areas.”

  “That’s amazing. Though I notice you didn’t tell me about what else you have going on in that brain of yours.”

  He quirked an eyebrow at her, and she realized how her last statement had sounded.

  “You know what I mean!” she said.

  “And I’m not going to tell you. I need to keep some things a mystery.”

  She wondered if Jak realized how flirtatious that last remark sounded. He seemed completely oblivious to her as a woman, for which she was just as glad. And a little disappointed, a traitorous little corner of her mind whispered to her.

  Chapter Eight

  The woods were getting thicker around them again. The trees butted against each other and clawed for the sky in endless competition for more sun. Now that she was fully dressed she kept up with Jak fairly easily. The ground had dried out since their last trek, which made the terrain much easier to navigate. As they walked under the trees in daylight, she could see the strangeness that made up the Haefonian undergrowth. The canopy was so thick that light filtered through only in occasional rays of brilliant cerulean. The odd hardy shrub or plant thrived here, but in the deepest shadows and recesses of the woods barely luminescent things were abundant.

  “Mushrooms,” Jak grunted when she asked. “They’re the only plants that survive where the woods are thickest. I wouldn’t eat them. They won’t kill you, but you’ll wish they had.”

  “They make you sick?”

  “Not so much, but they cause nasty hallucinations that’re pretty intense. People sometimes kill themselves to make them stop. The visions are so bad that there isn’t even a market for them, except as some really messed up poisons.”

  So this beautiful planet had a dark side. Aside from the Orthodoxans, that was. She peered into a particularly deep shadow where the strange luminescence was brightest. The mushrooms ringed the roots of a massive tree and created a series of electric blue steps.

  “Why do you do that?” Torrin asked when she noticed Jak carefully cutting a narrow triangle into the trunk of one of the trees. They were the same ones he’d followed the other night.

  “So we can retrace our steps if we need to,” he replied as he finished. “I can use the maps in my head, but they’re not that detailed.”

  It made sense. Torrin started paying close attention whenever he stopped to mark a tree or shrub. After a while, she thought she understood what his various marks meant.

  They continued deeper into the forest until the rays that split the perpetual gloom came more and more infrequently. Jak displayed no difficulty in navigating the continuing darkness. Torrin was only able to keep up with him because the deeper they went the less undergrowth there was. The path cleared up considerably, which was good since it was almost impossible for her to see. The glowing mushrooms were more abundant as well, but their luminescence was so dim it only illuminated a small pool around each group of fungi.

  Torrin lost track of how long they walked. Eventually her stomach decided to remind her that it had been quite some time since her last meal. Apparently, almost drowning in the raging river had given her quite the appetite.

  “What are we going to do about food?” she asked finally.

  “I’m keeping an eye out for any game, but there’s not that much where it’s this dark.”

  “Not many animals like the darkness, I take it?”

  “It’s not that. Just not many game animals here.” Jak sounded vaguely amused. “There are a number of animals who think we’re game, though.”

  All of a sudden, the woods seemed much more sinister. Shadows pressed in on her, and the hair on the back of her neck raised as if she could feel malevolent eyes on them.

  “Are they dangerous?” She hurried to get closer to him. If she’d had her usual armament she knew she wouldn’t feel nearly so vulnerable. She cursed the guards for making her leave her plasma pistol behind in her room. It wasn’t in her nature to let someone else take care of her. Under ordinary circumstances, she didn’t care for being this dependent on another person, but most especially not on a man.

  “Yup,” he responded blithely. “But the Orthodoxans won’t expect us to cut through here for exactly that reason. They almost never make it this deep into the forests.”

  “You still have your sidearm, right? Why don’t you let me have it?”

  He stopped so abruptly that she bounced off his back. He spun around and caught her upper arms just in time to keep her from tipping over.

  “Are you kidding me? What’re you going to do with my pistol?”

  “Use it to protect myself is what,” she shot back indignantly. “I don’t need you to watch over me. I can protect myself.”

  “Let’s just forget for a second that you’re my prisoner and I’d be a complete idiot to arm you,” he said, his voice tense. “How about the fact that you can’t see a damn thing in this darkness? How about that you’re wound up so tight I can practically see you shaking? I don’t need you shooting me in the back because you decided to make a break for it or because you thought I was a big bad beastie come to eat you.”

  “I’m not a moron! I have nowhere to go except with you. I can see that even though I don’t like it.” And at this moment, I don’t much like you, she thought fiercely at him. “And if I’m shaking it’s because I’m hungry. I almost drowned back there, remember?” Sure, that’s why you’re shaking, the little voice piped up in the back of her head. It has nothing to do with the fact that he’s holding on to you.

  “Oh yeah, I remember. I swallowed about a liter of water hauling your ass out of the drink.”

  “Whatever…” She wrenched her arm out of his grip. “You need to trust me. I don’t have any choice about my circumstances.”

  “Fat chance. I bet you can handle yourself quite well, no matter the circumstances. If I give you a centimeter, you’ll take every one I’ve got and probably come back for more.” His voice tightened. “And while we’re standing here arguing, a very large aetanberan is coming up on us.”

  “What are you talking about, there’s a wha—” The rest of her words were cut off when he shoved her down in front of him. His face lit up and thunder crashed in the darkness above her. The flash from his rifle revealed a face set tightly in concentration, tip of the tongue gripped by white teeth. When the noise mercifully stopped, her ears were ringing and she felt as much as heard the crash of something large hitting the ground close at hand. Very close at hand. She turned, but what night vision she’d gained in the deep shadows had been mostly wiped out. Even though she was almost blind, she could barely make out the massive bulk of something almost as tall as Jak was. Lying down. The harsh smell of the rifle’s projectiles hung in the air almost, but not quite masking a strong gamey odor.

  “What the hell was that?”

  “An aetanberan. They’re large mammals, native to the planet. They’re extremely territorial and they’ll happily rip apart anything that wanders into their territories.”

  “How did you know it was headed our way?”

  “I saw it. Well, after I smelled it. One of my extra advantages is the ability to see in the dark.” Jak shrugged uncomfortably. “Still, there’s no point letting all of this go to waste.” He strode over to the rapidly cooling carcass and pulled a large knife out of the sheath at his belt.

  “You can’t be serious.” Now that the smell of the projectiles had faded, she could smell the beast. Smell it, hell. She could practically taste it, the odor was so strong. No wonder Jak had noticed it by the stench; the animal had an extremely pungent odor about it, sour and vaguely caustic.

  “As you pointed out, we need food. Aetanberan meat tastes way better than you think, seeing how bad it smells.” He cut a slit into the fur on the creature’s back and peeled it a
side. “I need to move quickly on this, though. Soon the smell will attract even nastier things.”

  “Knock yourself out,” Torrin said and moved off a little way, hoping to find a patch of air that didn’t reek so badly. Was it just her imagination or could she hear things moving around in the darkness? The ringing in her ears was slowly easing. “Hurry up!”

  “I’m almost done,” he replied calmly to her hissed order.

  True to his word, Jak moved quickly. Before long, he was wrapping a bloody hunk of meat in a piece of material he’d pulled out of one the many pockets in his pants. The wrapped hunk went back into the same pocket.

  “Let’s get moving,” he ordered. “When we get far enough from the carcass that we’re no longer in danger, I’ll roast this up and we’ll get some real food.” He slid a hand into hers and pulled her along behind him. She didn’t object; she just wanted to be away from the corpse of the hulking beast.

  They walked at a much brisker pace than he’d set since she went into the river. It wasn’t the run with which they’d left the compound, but it was still urgent. They must have gone another few kilometers when the ground began to slope downward more consistently. They’d had as many struggles uphill as down, but the descents were becoming more frequent and lasted longer. Thankfully, the trees began to thin and sunlight poked through the canopy with increasing frequency. The sun was also much lower than it had been when they ventured into the deepest part of the forest. By Torrin’s estimation, it was well into late afternoon.

  “Let’s stop here,” Jak decided, casting a look around and eyeing a small deadfall nearby. Torrin regarded it dubiously.

  Jak looked at her and raised an eyebrow. “You look like you were expecting a palace and someone offered you a shepherd’s hut instead.”

  “It’s not that,” she protested. “I’ve slept in much worse!” Including a couple of prisons, she thought. But those hadn’t been her fault, no more than her current situation was.

  “Don’t worry,” he said, eyebrow still raised. “I’ll be able to make it bigger. Why don’t you get some wood for a fire and I’ll work on where we’ll sleep for the night. Don’t go too far. We aren’t out of danger from wildlife yet.”

  As she picked up likely sticks and twigs she realized that this was the first time she’d seen any evidence of a sense of humor from him. She rather liked it, though with that crooked smile he looked even more ridiculously young.

  When she returned to their camp, he had ringed the deadfall round with large branches and interspersed them with smaller twigs to form woven walls on three sides. He’d dug a fire pit in front of the shelter and was lining the outside with stones.

  “Aren’t you worried that a fire will give away our position?” She dumped the armload of branches next to the pit.

  “It could,” he admitted as he continued to pile up stones. The muscles in his forearm stood out in sharp relief as he moved the heavy rocks. “I’m not too worried, though. The Orthodoxans don’t usually come this far into the woods, and the canopy will break up the worst of the smoke.”

  He started sorting through the wood she had gathered, laying the smallest and driest twigs into the fire pit first. He quickly built up the rest of the twigs around it and sat back on his heels to survey the construction critically.

  “Good thing the firestarter usually works even if it gets wet,” he said, reaching into one of his many pockets. From his jacket he produced a cylindrical device not much longer than his palm. He pressed down on one end and the other end glowed red then white-hot. He touched it to one of the branches at the base and it immediately burst into flames. After he repeated the maneuver in a few more places, the fire burned away merrily.

  Torrin crowded in on the fire. The warmth and dry heat felt nice. She realized just how cold she’d gotten now that she’d stopped moving. Maybe her hair would finally dry out. She dropped gracefully into a seated position, legs crossed and palms held out toward the flames. Jak pulled the hunk of meat out of his pocket. He washed the blade of his knife off with the contents of a flask that he unclipped from his belt, then held the knife over the flames until the metal started to smoke. He carved the chunk of Aetanberan flesh into four pieces and skewered them on some long branches that he’d set aside. He passed one over to her.

  “Make sure it’s well cooked,” he said. “Most of the gaminess cooks out that way, but if it’s rare it’ll taste real funky.”

  Torrin nodded and went about the task of cooking her dinner. Jak propped the other three skewers up against a stone near the fire so they hung over the flames and he didn’t have to constantly tend to them. Reaching back, he snagged his rifle from where it leaned against a tree trunk and started pulling it apart. She watched with great interest. She rarely dealt in propulsion weapons, preferring instead the plasma-based ones. By his practiced motions, she could tell he was very familiar with the process and his weapon.

  “How long have you been a soldier then?” The question popped out of her mouth. She cursed herself mentally. She was still irked with him and hadn’t meant to engage him, especially since he was being so stubborn in his refusal to let her have a weapon.

  Seemingly unaware of her internal struggle, Jak answered as he continued to tend to his weapon. “About four years. I was…sixteen when I joined up with Bron. They saw we were good at marksmanship pretty quick and we were fast-tracked into sniper school. They never have enough snipers. We get killed off at a good rate.” There was that pause again. He was lying about something, but nothing in that statement was really worth lying about. Still, that put him at twenty, which was a few years older than she would have guessed.

  “That’s understandable, I soppose,” she said. “How can you stand to be out here all on your own? It would make me crazy. I don’t do well without someone to talk to.”

  “It wasn’t so bad when Bron was still alive.” He still stripped and cleaned the rifle with mechanical motions, but his motions had lost their earlier crispness, becoming stiff and jerky. “He would spot for me, so we were always going out as a pair. Sometimes I can’t concentrate on anything beyond our targets, and he would keep me safe by watching our surroundings while I took the shot. He got me in and out of the kill zone in one piece and I got the job done.

  “It’s a miracle I survived this long,” Jak sighed heavily. “The survival rate for single snipers is about half that of pairs.” He didn’t sound sad or worried about his chances, just resigned, almost as if he didn’t really care if the worst happened to him. She couldn’t imagine being so close to someone that even two years after they were gone, such emptiness could still gnaw away at her insides. She’d never allowed any lovers to get close enough to her that any sort of void would be left when they went away. There was her sister. She knew if Nat died that she would feel terrible, but the kind of emotional chasm that his brother’s death had torn in Jak was beyond her comprehension. The closest she could come was the anguish she’d felt after her biological mother died. But she’d moved beyond that with the help of her adoptive mothers. Her heart went out to him. He obviously didn’t have anyone to help him move beyond the pain.

  “Well, I guess that explains some of your roughness,” she informed him, trying to lighten the mood a little.

  “Roughness?” He eyed her over the rifle barrel he was cleaning out.

  “Certainly. Your coarse demeanor. You’re obviously partially insane from the forced isolation out here.” She got into her theory and pointed her skewer at him for emphasis. “Mind you, you were probably already somewhat unstable since you chose to do this job. Sneaking around in the woods, shooting people who don’t know you’re there, then disappearing again.” She waved the dripping chunk of meat in a sweeping motion through the fire. “Very mysterious. I’m sure you have women dropping at your feet.” Where had that come from? She didn’t care, she really didn’t care. Really.

  “That’s your theory? That I’m crazy for doing this, but mysterious so I must have women falling out of
the trees.” He looked faintly amused. “If I’m that nuts, then women should be running the other way, no?”

  “Oh, you’d be surprised at what women will find attractive,” she replied blithely. “So do you? Have women falling over you, that is?” If she didn’t care, why was she pushing it, her little mental voice asked more than a little snidely.

  “No. That was Bron’s department,” Jak said. “He was tall, handsome and outgoing. I’m short, scrubby and for some reason I don’t get on with people real well.”

  “It’s that roughness I was telling you about,” Torrin replied. She hummed a little as she waved her meat slowly over the flames. She was inordinately pleased by his relationship status or lack thereof, more so than she should have been since she had no interest in him whatsoever.

  The smells that came off the cooking meat were surprisingly good especially compared to the stench that had come off the beast after Jak dispatched it. Her mouth watered and her stomach growled loudly. She glanced quickly over at Jak to see if he’d noticed, but he was staring out across the fire, lost in thought. He must be thinking about his brother, she thought. She wasn’t sure if the moroseness was an improvement over the anger he’d exhibited the last time she’d brought Bron up or not.

  “Your meat should probably be turned,” she said, following her own advice with her hunk of meat. Jak gave a little jerk at the sound of her voice and slid his glance down to touch the flesh that roasted on the skewers. He reached over and flipped them around with an economy of movement that spoke of much practice. He was clearly no stranger to acquiring and cooking his own food. A useful talent, especially in this situation. She knew that if she were wandering out here on her own she would be long dead. Or recaptured by the Orthodoxans. She shuddered; death would be preferable to being in the clutches of those assholes.